Ten years ago it, was hard to imagine Old Dominion without Ticha Penicheiro.

The dynamic point guard defined the Lady Monarchs so completely during her career at ODU that her absence lingered long after her graduation date.

A few years later, Shareese Grant's name was synonymous with ODU's success.

Grant almost single-handedly carried ODU to a conference championship her senior year, scoring 35 points in the overtime title game.

How would ODU survive minus Grant?

A humble shooting guard from Portsmouth named T.J. Jordan filled that gap quite nicely. The record books list Jordan twice as the MVP of the Colonial Athletic Association tournament, but here's what the numbers don't show:

For the past three years, No. 23 has been Old Dominion's most valuable player - period.

Last month, the Wilson High School graduate became the CAA career leader in 3-pointers. As dynamic as Jordan's long ball is - and with 319 treys beside her name, there's no questioning that - her range is only a fraction of her talent.

Jordan is adept at running the point, nabbing steals and tossing assists. She drills passes with a newfound precision and has a few no-looks up her sleeve. Jordan can score in transition and, even when she can't find her range, her very presence frees up another shooter because opposing defenses don't dare leave her alone on even a bad day.

Nobody plays more minutes. Stone-faced yet capable of great emotion, Jordan insists she's shy. Yet, her teammates don't hesitate when nominating her as the Lady Monarch most likely to succeed on "American Idol."

"Even her name makes her sound like a superstar," freshman Jasmine Parker said.

"Introducing... TAUREN JORDAN!" bellowed a giggling Jazzmin Walters.

Who can imagine ODU without No. 23?

It's been a trying senior year for Jordan, hampered by a foot injury since almost Day One of it. When the team was given shoes over Thanksgiving, Jordan thought hers fit well enough. But, during the game against UConn, her left foot began to slide in the slightly oversized shoe.

Three and a half months later, Jordan rests that foot on a heaping ice bag, standard treatment after every practice. What's been called a stress reaction was once close to a true break in December and, after the season, doctors will take a closer look at the fourth metatarsal bone.

While Jordan admits the injury is a major annoyance, she hasn't let it overshadow her senior year.

"I believe everything happens for a reason," she said. "I'm taking it all in stride. It's all good. That's life. You can't have a happy-go-lucky life all the time and I think my senior year has been tremendous."

Jordan's learned to play smarter and even sat herself down while she was hurting, even if doing so wasn't the most popular decision at the time. She missed ODU's game at defending national champion Tennessee on Dec. 5, going to Knoxville without even packing her uniform.

"I would have played that Tennessee game, but I decided not to bring my stuff; I didn't bring anything," she said. "I knew I would have played if I would have had my sneakers. If somebody else would have had the same size shoe, I probably would have switched."

Anyone who glimpsed Jordan as early as freshman year at Wilson couldn't help but notice No. 23 there, either. After moving to Portsmouth from Denver two years before, Jordan was the first in what would become a line of star basketball players at Wilson. In her first season, her 23-point average led South Hampton Roads.

But the unassuming Jordan, without the prototypical athletic build, hardly resembled a budding star.

"I'll never forget the first time she shook my hand; it was twice the size of mine and here I am 6-1, 275 and she's 5-6," Wilson coach Roger Smith said. "I still reserved judgment until I saw her in open gym. This kid started at one elbow and knocked down eight or 10 shots in a row and then moved to the other elbow and did the same thing."

By her senior year, Jordan and buddy Khadijah Whittington, now an All-ACC player at N.C. State, carried the Presidents to the Group AAA state final. Wilson has been among the area's best teams ever since.

"She started the whole thing," Smith said of Jordan.

Like many high school phenoms, Jordan wasn't the selective shooter then that she became in college. Still, Jordan didn't foresee herself owning every major 3-point record at ODU and more significantly, the CAA, by graduation.

"I knew I could shoot," said Jordan, who possesses a skill that goes back to growing up with three brothers who demanded she plant herself in the corner of the court. She was under orders: "Don't do nothing but shoot!"

Jordan remembers an ODU fan talking to her about breaking Aubrey Eblin's mark of nine 3s in a game almost from the day she arrived.

"I was just a senior in high school," she said. "I was thinking, 'It's got to be tougher in college.'"

"Really I don't know about the records until somebody brings them to my attention," Jordan said. "When the CAA record came about and I broke it, coach Larry said, 'Way to get a monkey off your back.' But I can't have a monkey off my back if I don't know about it."

ODU coach Wendy Larry regards Jordan as "the silent storm."

"She can break a game wide open," Larry said. "She's hit some of the most phenomenal shots I've ever seen."

As important as basketball is to Jordan, she has never been defined by it. The youngest of six, her family is everything to her and, after an emotional win, she regularly climbs the stairs in search of kin. Her brother, Zon, is always there, and her mother, Sharon Smith, often makes the four-hour drive from Fayetteville, N.C.

"My mom learned to text message this year," Jordan said. "She's always on the TV looking at the bottom of the screen, at the scores flashing. She even tries to call my brother during the game and he won't answer the phone."

A WNBA future is uncertain - and perhaps unlikely with the injury - but overseas is an option she'd love to explore. An elementary education major, Jordan has talked for years of being a speech teacher, though initially she hopes to work at a recreation center with youth requiring special needs.

And just as Jordan left Wilson in championship form, she'll leave Old Dominion in good hands. The Lady Monarchs are one win shy of their 30th this season, a feat they haven't accomplished since they were NCAA runners-up in 1997.

"I hope I've been a role model to where when the next players come in a fan might say, 'You remind me of T.J.,'" Jordan said. "Or, 'We had this girl named T.J. on the team. She was this spark. We loved to watch her play.'

"I hope I have left something at this school where there's always something positive said about me."

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